Karine Vanasse - in Pan Am official pictures

The other night the first episode of the new series Pan Am was aired. Produced by ABC (the same as Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy), the series is centered around the much-coveted lives of the stewardesses working for the celebrated airline in its golden era: the beginning of the 60s.

The series revolves around the female flight attendants - stunning, uninhibited, the epitome of all that a woman wanted to be in those years. In the first episode we already learn about affairs going on between flight attendants and passengers, flight attendants and pilots, rivalries and jealousy, but also planty of healthy female friendships (the fact that the leading ladies are four and end up catching up holding cocktails evokes a little too much the format of Sex and the City).

There are also soap opera-style unexpected events involved (you know, featuring the leads eavesdropping what they shouldn’t or spying thought a raindrop-covered glass) which we won’t reveal, but we can imagine that the four female leads will soon be at the mercy of the world’s events. After all, judging from the titles of the first four episodes (We’ll always have Paris, Ich Bin ein Berliner, Easter Promises) the series will be set against the backdrop of the world’s capital cities (in the first episode we already had a glimpse of Rome, overwhelmed by traffic and with men staring at the ladies’ backsides) and opens in full cold war 1963, the year Kennedy was assassinated.

As everybody has realized from the very first trailer, Pan Am taps into Mad Men’s global success, but – we can say right from the start – the series doesn’t reach its level. Even putting aside originality (Pan Am is an obvious by-product), Mad Men has a shockproof screenplay, with the actions of the numerous characters affecting each other like in a chain reaction. In Pan Am, instead, the events are just laid one next to the other, lacking the same level of interaction. Besides, most of the fascination of Mad Men comes from the representation of the characters’ unfairness and obtuseness, that won’t prevent them from slapping kids or smoking in their face, while Pan Amfocuses on the nostalgic idealization of a golden era in the history of America.

Also regarding the quality of costume design, Pan Am cannot compare with Mad Men. See, Mad Menis a milestone in the history of costume design because it was the first series to show that at the beginning of the 60s people used to wear the same clothes as in previous decades. In Pan Am everybody looks as if they have just stepped out of a boutique or the cleaner’s, with their perfectly ironed blouses and creaseless shoes. (Besides, some of the stylistic choices – like the wedding gown you will see – are a bit too traditional-looking, aiming at not displeasing the viewers, rather than making us perceive the 60s like a peculiar period).

In any case, it’s a pleasant watch. Acting is good (Christina Ricci – who should be the star but in the first episode only plays a small part – is, for instance, appropriate and subtle), all actors are very attractive – maybe too much – and the sets are well-detailed (although the use of CGI is, especially in exterior shootings, is too obvious and ends us distracting the viewer). And if you succeed in forgiving the blanket of nostalgia that surrounds the film, just like the golden light enthralls the JFK visitors, you will end up with a solid entertainment product, although inferior to what we expect nowadays.